All the weapon shells in the world couldn't match the radness of this modded Light Gun. Having already given his console wings, AcidMods' CyberPyrot affixed an IR sensor from a Wii remote into the barrel of his gray, plastic pistol, wiring the gun's trigger with the controller's.
The resulting apparatus looks a bit clunky, especially when you consider that the nunchuck hasn't even been hooked up yet, but CyberPyrot claims that it vastly improved his performance when playing Far Cry. Pew pew past the post break for more photos and a video of the refitted Zapper.
Fishing rods, tennis rackets, baseball bats, guns -- a year from now, you'll probably be able to transform your Wii remote into a car and zoom around your living room. But are any of the shells and add-ons necessary? Are they useful? We're curious what you think. Which ones (if any) do you want to try, or even buy, and which do you find completely superfluous? Obviously, all Guitar Hero-related paraphernalia is exempt on grounds of being both awesome and necessary. We're talking about straight-up shells here.
Either Amazon.com is selling a Super Special Edition of the Wiimote that "Beams money through Bluetooth up to 30 feet away", or they've made a weird error on the page for that item. We'd like to know what item that attribute originally described. Or ... hold on. We're going to go try something.
Okay, we're back. We tried it, and it didn't work. We set some cash out on the table, in different denominations (just in case a $1 bill was easier to beam than a $5), and pointed the Wiimote at it, and it totally didn't do anything. Eventually the cat showed up and sat on the money, but we can't definitively ascribe that behavior to Wii beams.
We hope nobody writes a news post whenever we screw up ... You know what? We hope they do. We'd like to spread the joy of blogging.
We try to tip our hats whenever we spot a magazine cover that catches our fancy, but after having received numerous complaints from the jerks in accounting, upper management recently revised our office dress code to prohibit the wearing of sombreros, bowlers, and Davy Crockett caps. Our heads have been bare ever since the decree was passed down, and we haven't been doing much hat-tipping as a result. Needless to say, we really miss our silly hats.
Edge's cover for its July issue is just what we needed to lift our spirits. The UK magazine has a reputation for attractive layouts, inside and out, and this month's artwork is no exception, heralding Nintendo's victory run on gold. Though the image pasted above captures the basic gist, you can see a shot of the full cover after the post break. Ironically, only one Wii game made Edge's review pages this time around -- Mercury Meltdown Revolution. Ignition's labyrinthine title garnered an 8 out of 10; quite impressive considering the magazine's traditionally tough scoring.
Demand for a remote and nunchuck carrying case might not actually exist, but that hasn't stopped other trivialWii-themedproducts from hitting the market. The pouch's white cover features some slick, unmarked lineart and the knockoff u-umlautlogo we've all grown to love; it's almost enough to make us overlook its $10 pricing on eBay (shipping included). We've got more photos and packaging shenanigans after the post break, in case you were wondering.
Brian McConnell left his son, Adam, alone with a game of Wii Sports: Tennis for only a few moments to fetch a drink, but that was all the time the little demon needed. Not even a Wii remote strap could've saved Brian's plasma TV once the three-year-old set his mind on avenging a lost match.
Brian came back to the living room to find his £1,000 television ruined, its 42-inch screen bashed by his Wiimote-wielding progeny. Queue up the darth_vader_nooo.jpg images.
The forgiving father let Adam off the hook with only a light lecture and a two-week Wii ban. That's a lot more lenient than the hanging, drawing, and quartering punishment one of our NintenDadz would've sought.
It won't be long before LED mods completely overtake our Wii remotes, flushing its white plastic with neon warmth to the point where it burns our fingers whenever we try to wrap them around the glowing batons. We'll stare at the controllers sizzling on the coffee table, ruing the day we started outfitting our remotes with these ridiculous lights.
Unlike his previous B-trigger hack which didn't do much beyond looking pretty, Loki's power button mod actually serves a somewhat useful purpose. Following the posted photo walkthrough and soldering instructions, you can install an LED that will let you know whether or not you've actually turned off your Wii after pushing the on/off button. Sure, you can just check the lights at the bottom of your remote, but where's the fun in that?
If you've ever considered yourself a person of class, a member of the gaming bourgeoisie if you will, you'd turn your nose up at the idea of keeping your controllers in a plastic bin or wicker basket. That's the sort of practice you'd rather leave to those of lesser fortune and breeding, right?
No, your discriminating tastes demand more sophisticated storage solutions. You require something like Brando's WeDock, a product that does very little for its $19 price tag, but does it quite stylishly. The small locker's clean, white design matches your Nintendo Wii along with any Apple sensibilities you might have. Its one-touch, "springboard" slots fit up to two remotes and nunchucks.
When guests ask if the WeDock recharges your remotes' batteries, you'll laugh in their faces until they bow their heads in shame. Of course it doesn't. Jump past the post break for more product shots.
Were it our decision, the streets would be choked with the undead, suffocated by their sloth and numbers. What little remained of the human race would have to go into hiding, their once-magnificent kingdoms now ruled by zombie majesty. It's a terrible vision that we hold onto in our heads every night before drifting off to sleep, hoping to carry it along with us in our dreams.
Given our affection for the undead here at the Fanboy offices, we couldn't pass up mentioning this month's cover of Official Nintendo Magazine. The issue advertises May's Resident Evil features with a corpse hand breaking through its earthen grave. Gripped by cold, gray fingers, a Wii remote kicks back into life, properly strapped to the undeceased's wrist. Head past the post break for a better look, but take care not to attract the attention of brain-eating revenants on your way inside.
We didn't even know that acessories manufacturer Intec was working on a Wii remote charging station until we saw one listed for sale earlier today. Much like Nyko's cradle, Intec's dock comes with two rechargeable battery packs and a base that lights up to signal when it's in use. That's about where the similarities between the two end.
Intec's dock does away with the AC plug and allows you to conveniently charge the battery packs via USB instead. Adding onto its appeal, at $25.00, the dock comes in $5.00 cheaper than Nyko's. Sounds like an easy choice between the two, right?
Where Intec's dock fails is its inability to charge both battery packs at the same time. You can't even charge the packs while they're in locked in the controllers! Those two slots for the remotes? Just for display! If you want to recharge a battery pack, you have to remove it from the controller and plant it into the dock.
This sort of half-assed setup might have flown back in November, but months after competitors have already put out more advanced solutions? Even with the five-dollar savings, you'd be wise to avoid this dock. That said, jump past the post break anyway, and check out the strange blurb we spotted on Intec's packaging.
Wii remote modders won't rest until they've installed fluorescent lighting on every button and pad, decorating the controller like some kind of rectangular christmas tree. Today's DIY project adds an LED to the usually unseen B button behind the remote.
WiiCade forumer Loki has instructions and a photo tutorial on how to plant an LED under your own Wiimote's trigger. You can set the button to light up all the time or when the controller rumbles, whichever your fancy. Check past the post break for video of the glowing mod.
Years from now, we'll laugh at how we once depended on dated technology like keys and key cards. We'll mime the motions of manually unlocking a door while our friends guffaw at the absurdity of our adolescence. We'll all shake our heads at the joke our lives used to be.
We have a long way to go before we can telepathically open doors, travel to distant star systems on a whim, or make out with holographic hussies in a holodeck, but a group of Japanese tinkerers have started taking the steps to get us there. Setting up a lock motor with a PC that accepts bluetooth commands, they've jury-rigged a door to unlock when it picks up motion from a Wii remote. Futuristic!
We can't imagine this as being very secure, so don't plan on guarding your important documents or Pokemon cards with one of these DIY locks. Check past the jump for video of the setup in action.
Fire Bird's rechargeable grip combines the functions of a Wii remote charging dock and a controller frame accessory. The product seemed silly to us at first, but we suppose that something like this could be useful when we're playing Virtual Console releases or games that require us to hold the remote sideways like Excite Truck. Having a convenient way to recharge the battery via USB will also come in handy for future marathon sessions with Fire Emblem: Goddess of Dawn when Nintendo brings the time-consuming SRPG stateside.
SuccessHK no longer has the rechargeable controller grip in stock, but there are still a few listed on eBay for about $9.99 ($8.00 shipping). One strange thing to note about the packaging is its Wii Sports branding. Having your remote locked into the plastic frame would make playing any of the Wii Sports' games awkward. Check out that Wii logo too! The last two letters look more like a u-umlaut than lowercase i's. Head past the post break for a larger shot of the grip!
Reader Paul probably has to fend a lot of people off his Wii; after all, he has the sweetest controllers around. While it takes a little artistic skill to pull this off, this is the kind of mod anyone with the courage to give it a shot could do, and that's why we can't resist showing it to you. Oh, if only we could manage to draw a straight line, much less paint one. We yearn for that extra dash of awesome.
The blue one looks like it should belong to someone who owns a Mini Cooper. You know, the kind with the Union Jack on the roof. Anyone else get that feeling? The red one just makes us think of Voldo, and now we want a Wii Soul Calibur that much more.
[Thanks, Paul!]
Read - Close-up of black Wiimote Read - Close-up of red Wiimote
Having already made a name for himself with system mods for the Wii like the internal GameCube memory card and the internal Wavebird receiver, hardware hacker foobar2k shifted his attention to the Wii remote for his latest creation: a USB Wii sensor bar.
There have been other homemade USB Wii sensor bars that take advantage of the remote's "pointing" functionality, but this project wins points for stuffing all of the LEDs and wiring into a pen case. If that doesn't sound classy enough for you, he also secured the bar to his monitor with Blu Tack and branded it by scrawling "Wii" on the casing, off-center.
Foobar2k has instructions and a photo guide at his site for creating your own USB Wii sensor bar with cheap and accessible materials. Let us know if you can think of any ways to make the setup even more ghetto than it already is.
All the weapon shells in the world couldn't match the radness of this modded Light Gun. Having already given his console wings, AcidMods' CyberPyrot affixed an IR sensor from a Wii remote into the barrel of his gray, plastic pistol, wiring the gun's trigger with the controller's. 
